Daniel Wiffen's meteoric rise from Game of Thrones cameo to Irish Olympic gold medallist

Daniel Wiffen has won a gold medal and broken an Olympic record while representing Ireland in the Paris Olympic 2024. What do we know about the sports sensation?

Born on July 14, 2001, Wiffen grew up in Magheralin, a village nestled between Moira and Lurgan in Co Down. He is a former student of St Patrick's Grammar in Armagh.

Wiffen and his identical twin brother Nathan both developed a love for swimming at a young age. While Nathan specialised in backstroke, Daniel found his calling in freestyle.

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Their parents recall how the boys took to the water like ducks to a pond during their first Water Babies session. Their passion for swimming only grew when their older brother Ben joined the Lurgan Swimming Club, prompting the twins to follow in his footsteps at the age of six.

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2012 marked a turning point for the Wiffen brothers as they joined the Lisburn Swimming Club and began their competitive journey. That same year, Nathan won his first Irish medal at the 2012 Summer Nationals Division 2.

In 2015, Daniel Wiffen made waves by joining the Irish National Team and participating in various Swim Ireland camps and competitions.

The Wiffen brothers climbed the ranks of Irish swimming side by side and together took the plunge to train at Dublin's National Aquatic Centre.

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Later on, the duo dove into a new chapter at Loughborough University, where they continue their aquatic pursuits; Daniel also dives into the world of academia, studying IT with Business Management at the esteemed institution.

Discussing his bond with his siblings, Wiffen shared with Olympics.com: "I don't really have much of a rivalry with my older brother [Ben] - he quit just before I was going to beat him."

"But me and my twin Nathan have a big rivalry because we train together and he's doing the same events as me, he used to do backstroke and now he does distance freestyle."

Not only is Wiffen a force in the pool, but he also made a splash on the small screen in the epic series Game of Thrones.

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Filmed partially in Belfast , the show offered Wiffen and his twin, Nathan, a chance to appear as extras during one of its most unforgettable moments the notorious Red Wedding episode.

Wiffen recounted in a 2022 chat how he and Nathan snagged roles on the set after their sister secured a part in the fantasy hit.

"I didn't really know about Game of Thrones when I was younger," he admitted.

"My parents wouldn't let me watch it, but my sister got a really good role in Game of Thrones she was one of the Frey daughters. So she came in and did her bit, and then we came in for the Red Wedding, in the background which was pretty cool."

The brief stint on Game of Thrones sparked Wiffen and his brother's passion for acting, leading them to play Henry Bowyer in an episode of The Frankenstein Chronicles six years ago.

"It's on Netflix , and I was also on a couple of British Children's TV shows as well because I was a twin," Wiffen shared. "Acting's big for twins when they're younger."

In 2019, at just 17, Wiffin smashed the long course Irish Junior Record at the Irish Open Swimming Championships.

He clocked a new personal best of 8:16.79 in the 800m freestyle, beating the European Junior Championships and World Junior Championships qualifying times, and breaking the previous Junior Record of 8:19.15 by a significant margin to claim the national title.

Then, at the Irish Winter Meet in Dublin the next year, Wiffen set a new national record in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 15:19.04, shaving off more than half a second from the old Irish national record of 15:19.98.

In 2021, he earned his place on the Irish team for Tokyo 2020, joining eight others as part of the nine-member Irish Olympic Swimming team making their Olympic debut.

In the 800 free at the Tokyo Olympics, Wiffen set a new Irish record with a time of 7:51.65, beating his previous best of 7:52.90 and finishing 14th. In the 1500 free, he broke another of his own records from April, posting a time of 15:07.69.

After his impressive performance in Tokyo, Wiffen went on to break the 15-minute barrier in the 1500m at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, becoming the first Irish swimmer to achieve this feat. He finished fourth in the event.

At the same Championships, Wiffen shattered the national 800m freestyle record, clocking in at 7:46.32 and shaving over four seconds off his previous record of 7:50.74 set in April. This achievement also made him the first Irish swimmer to reach a World Championship final, where he placed eighth in the 800m freestyle.

Just weeks after Budapest, Wiffen clinched silver in the 1500 free at the Commonwealth Games, representing Northern Ireland . He was one of only two men to finish under 15 minutes, alongside Australian champion Samuel Short who posted a time of 14:51.79.

Wiffen also twice improved the 400 free standard, leading the heats with a time of 3:47.43 before narrowly missing out on a medal in the final, finishing fourth with a time of 3:46.62, just 0.13 seconds behind third-placed Mack Horton, the Rio 2016 champion.

Wiffen, the Irish swimming sensation, made waves in November 2022 at the British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships in Sheffield. He set a new Irish record in the men's 800m freestyle, and also established the new Irish men's 400m record at the 2022 Scottish National Short Course Championships.

The year 2023 was a landmark one for Wiffen. At the 800m World Championship freestyle final in Japan in July, he set a new European record, narrowly missing out on securing Ireland's first World Championship long-course swimming medal.

In an intense final, Wiffen was just. 52 away from bronze, finishing in 7:39.19.

This time was almost five seconds faster than his previous Irish Record of 7:43.81, and. 08 of a second quicker than Italian Gregoria Paltrinieri's European record of 7:39.27 set at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Wiffen continued to make history in December 2023 at the European Short Course Championships, where he claimed the first-ever world record for an Irish swimmer.

The Irish distance specialist clocked a personal-best 7:20.46 in the SCM 800 freestyle, shattering the legendary world record of 7:23.42 set by Australia's Grant Hackett back on July 20, 2008. This achievement marked the oldest word record in swimming being broken.

Wiffen's extraordinary performance earned him gold at the swimming Championships in Romania.

Following his record-breaking achievement, Wiffen expressed: "Amazing. That world record, I think, is one of the oldest on the books and to beat Grant Hackett's record, it's just amazing. I look up to him every day and to smash it is class."

"I had people messaging me asking if I was going to try and break the world record, but I was trying to keep it under wraps that I was in the shape for it. I actually felt horrible during the morning so it's great to swim that fast when I've been feeling that way."

Just days earlier, Wiffen had clinched 400m freestyle gold at the Championships, shattering his own Irish record by over five seconds. He then secured a second top podium spot by clocking the third fastest time ever in the 1500m freestyle final a few days later.

Wiffen's triumph in the 800m came shortly after he had already bagged gold in the 1500m and 400m freestyle.